A new pool of young swimming talent is ready to take on the world this summer after coming through the ranks in Leeds.
The home grown trio of Georgia Coates, 15, Magdalena Cygan, 15, and Amelia Clynes, 14, have just returned from a record-breaking trip representing Team GB at the European Junior Championships in Holland.
Amelia won silver in the 100m butterfly and a bronze in the 200m butterfly, setting a new British age group record in the process. She also helped the medley team to a fourth placed finish.
Georgia won silver in the 200m individual medley and bronze in the 400m individual medley and finished sixth in the 800m freestyle, while Magdalena came forth in the 4 x 100m freestyle team event.
Georgia, Amelia and Magdalena will now go on to compete at the National Youth and Senior Championships in Sheffield over the next two months, with their rankings expected to be given a big boost by their performance in the Netherlands.
Georgia and Amelia have also been selected for British Swimming stroke camps in September, having been handpicked by Team GB because of their potential.
All three swimmers have worked their way through the ranks in Leeds, starting with the Leeds City Council lesson programme and progressing through the council’s training scheme before going on to represent their country.
Richard Denigan, head coach with the council’s swimming training scheme, said:
“These hugely talented young swimmers have all worked incredibly hard to make it to this level and all three have an extremely promising career in the sport ahead of them.
“Their success is testament to both their individual ability and the strength of the training programme and facilities we have in Leeds.
“We’re consistently producing home grown talent that is competing on the international stage and that’s something that we and the city can be immensely proud of.”
The council’s swimming training scheme runs at eight groups around the city, focusing on technique and skill development.
Swimmers can then progress through the scheme based on their swimming ability and following assessment.
The training scheme is run by three full time coaches and approximately thirty support coaches who are all Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) qualified.
Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, Leeds City Council’s executive member for digital and creative technologies, culture and skills, said:
“The fantastic accomplishments of these three young athletes are the latest in a string of success stories for our swimming and aquatics programme.
“Leeds is now firmly established as one of the leading lights the field of aquatics on both the national and international stage.
“We are continuing to see wave after wave of outstanding young talent coming out of our programmes and thanks to the hard work and dedication of our athletes, the knowledge and skill of our coaches and the world class facilities our city boasts, the future is looking extremely bright.”
For information about the training scheme in Leeds, visit: www.leeds.gov.uk/sports/Pages/Swimming-clubs-and-training-scheme.aspx
